If this message is still meaning that a WU has used too much CPU time as this BOINC FAQ says, then I see it as one more BOINC inconsistency, particularly now that BOINC is counting CPU time and Elapsed time separately and showing only the latter in its latest versions.

I am sure that Ingleside will enjoy explaining us why all this is perfectly logical.
Let's just wait for him to see this thread.

In the meantime, ashes999, you might tell us more about your processor, your operating system and which BOINC version you are using. That could help us a little.

It's CPU-usage related.

BOINC uses the following equation to find the max cpu-time:

max_elapsed_time = fpops_bound / flops

AFAIK flops is directly your computers floating-point-benchmark, while fpops_bound is a wu-specific limit set by the project, and is normally different for each wu-type.

The limit is to guard against a wu being stuck in an endless loop or similar, something that could lead to many days and even weeks running same wu without any progress.

How large the limit is depends on the project, but it can atleast look like 10x the estimated cpu-time if your DCF (duration correction factor) is 1 is a fairly common choise.


So, things to check would be, your benchmark, if this somehow is much higher than normal you'll run into problems, a re-run of benchmark should normally fix this problem.

Another thing would be cpu-throttling, due to overheating or some OS or BIOS-settings. Checking temperatures and cleaning-out dust-bunnies from the fans can be an idea.

Other things can be individual wu's are bad, buggy application, estimate is wrong (this can example happen if some larger wu's is released, but the estimates isn't adjusted for the larger size).